Urdu speakers

[Rajarshi Banerjee]

They are known as "Biharis" and live like refugees in Bangladesh. They are
discriminated and many try to illegally immigrate to Pakistan Many such
illegal "muhajeers" can be found in Karachi. Some have also gone back to
India. Their total number is estimated to be around 250,000.
>
RB> This is miniscule compared to SA's "half the population" claim. I could
see some sort of mixed bengali hindi slang develop in refugee camps etc but
doubt the existance of a large hindi/urdu speaking group. The west
pakistanis have hardly left a trace as far as language is concerned. I was
amused to see seat belts refered to as asana bandhani while travelling in
biman airlines, most hindi speakers would not go to such lengths at
sanskritization.
>
RS> Just like "high" caste Indians (irrespective of ethnicity) wanted to be
associated with "immigrant" Indo -Aryan roots (versus the new nativist Aryan
movement now)
>
Any aryan movement in india has always been nativist and has had little to
do with immigrant cultures of arabs, huns, sakas etc. Even if we hold the
AMT to be the sudden recent explosion as is claimed, we have to admit that
most of the practices brahmans have propogated and legitimized to this day
would be considred pagan or animistic rituals in other cultures and have
thier origins in india. e.g. see recent thread on durga puja.
Can we say this of christian missionaries or muslim converts
We should  have a look at neighbouring countries and continents and see
which nations have been able to preserve even a trace of their older
culture.
RB